The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

The best for catching people out were the old, rubber topped plugs where you had to feed the cable through a hole in the plug top BEFORE fixing the wires to the pins on the base. Many's the time I've secured the wires and then found that I forgot to feed the cable into the plug top first.

Dad (an electrical & electronic engineer by trade) had quite a few with a little slot cut out of the sheath on the plug top where he'd also been caught out but couldn't be bothered to undo the wires and start again

Yes; they were soooo annoying!

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

I used to have to teach (trainee) hairdressers how to wire plugs. And when I went to uni forty years ago, lots of university houses still had round-pin plugs and we had to visit local electrical shops to buy the old sockets and adaptors.

Most of the rest of the world used a simpler two-pin system. Not totally sure why we should still be building things requiring three wires, seeing as we absolutely need to sell the same stuff to countries that just use two.

I read an article last year about how the British plug is the safest in the world. I can't find the same article, but here are a couple of others:

https://www.cnet.com/news/plug-versus-plug/
https://www.fastcodesign.com/3032807/why-england-has-the-best-wall-sockets-on-earth

vivatifosi

chris_m wrote: »

There is actually one thing that I do iron - the brushed cotton shirts that I like (basically, lumberjack shirts) tend to crease up something awful when washed, even on a supposedly non-crease setting, and come out as if they are about two sizes smaller than they are.
Therefore I do iron those - otherwise they feel uncomfortable and make me look more lardy then I really am :rotfl:

I don't know if you ever watched Home Improvement in the 1990s, but I am now visualising you as Al Borland:).

vivatifosi

Family history peeps. I've just been reading about the digitisation of the 1921 census. It is currently out to tender and due to be released in 2022.

After that, the census for 1931 was destroyed and no records for England or Wales survived, and there was no survey in 1941 due to the war, so we'll have to wait until the 1951 census is released in 2051/2 for the next release of big data. Not sure I'll be around then.

Pyxis

vivatifosi wrote: »

Family history peeps. I've just been reading about the digitisation of the 1921 census. It is currently out to tender and due to be released in 2022.

After that, the census for 1931 was destroyed and no records for England or Wales survived, and there was no survey in 1941 due to the war, so we'll have to wait until the 1951 census is released in 2051/2 for the next release of big data. Not sure I'll be around then.

Why was the 1931 census destroyed?

chris_m

vivatifosi wrote: »

I read an article last year about how the British plug is the safest in the world. I can't find the same article, but here are a couple of others:

https://www.cnet.com/news/plug-versus-plug/

I love their comments about the American ones;

Seriously, 110V, is that the best you guys can do? We aren't sure why the Americans think a 5-litre V8 engine is necessary in a commuter car, but 110V is enough to power your juicer.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:


I wonder if the Danish socket was designed like that so it fits in with their concept of hygge. Certainly looks that way to me

chris_m

vivatifosi wrote: »

I don't know if you ever watched Home Improvement in the 1990s, but I am now visualising you as Al Borland:).

Nah, I'm more Al Bundy - but without the wife, children and dog :rotfl:

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

Why was the 1931 census destroyed?

It wasn't intentionally (well, presumably not intentionally) destroyed - there was a fire where it was stored at the Office of Works in 1942, not attributed to enemy action.

Masomnia

vivatifosi wrote: »

I read an article last year about how the British plug is the safest in the world. I can't find the same article, but here are a couple of others:

https://www.cnet.com/news/plug-versus-plug/
https://www.fastcodesign.com/3032807/why-england-has-the-best-wall-sockets-on-earth

Interesting! I'll never look at a plug in the same way again

Pyxis

Masomnia wrote: »

Interesting! I'll never look at a plug in the same way again

Some Continental European friends of mine thought it was strange that we weren't allowed to have normal electric sockets in bathrooms, only shaver points.